


Ninja Princess

by PokeChan



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Bodyswap, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Pre-Relationship, magic is nothing but trouble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 09:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6950698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PokeChan/pseuds/PokeChan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People always say a fresh perspective is a good thing, but Sakura and Kurogane are pretty sure it wasn't meant to be so... literal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ninja Princess

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've had three false starts for this fic and I've finally got an opening I'm happy with. I'm posting this way ahead of schedule for Body Swap Day in [Tsubasa Chronicle Month](http://tsubasachroniclemonth.tumblr.com/).

The light was blinding and it seeped into Kurogane’s skin, into his bones, and then he was suddenly being pulled in every direction relentlessly. He felt like he was going to be ripped apart and torn into hundreds of tiny little pieces. Then, just as quickly, he was being compressed, squashed and pushed.

And then there was nothing.

Kurogane slowly clawed his way back into consciousness. His whole body felt like it was floating almost, far too light and almost unreal. The first thing he noticed was Syaoran’s voice, worried and close. It was a struggle to open his eyes, but Kurogane forced them to blink open. Syaoran was, indeed, hovering over him, looking absolutely frantic. Kurogane had only ever seen him get so worried over the princess and it had Kurogane wondering what, exactly, had happened to him.

Groaning, he tried to sit himself up, and found it harder than he would have expected. Whatever had happened had really sapped his strength. He tried to remember what had been going on before the light.

They’d all gone down into a series of underground tunnels to find the feather. Eventually they’d come to a wide room with two smaller tunnels leading deeper. Sakura had volunteered to venture into one of the tunnels while Syaoran took the other, since Kurogane couldn’t possible fit and even Fai would have to squeeze, but both Syaoran and Fai had talked her down, Fai even going so far to cram himself into the small tunnel. Kurogane remembered promising to keep watch before the other two vanished into the shadows.

The last thing Kurogane remembered was placing a reassuring hand on Sakura’s lowered head and thinking to himself that he’d have to do something about Syaoran and Fai’s overprotectiveness. After that, nothing.

Pushing himself up on arms that felt too thin he tried to take stock of himself, but Syaoran’s hands were on his back -- and why did they feel so big? Syaoran’s hands were hardly half the size of Kurogane’s -- and he was speaking, concern lacing each syllable. 

“Sakura-hime, are you alright? Are you in pain anywhere?” Syaoran was obviously speaking to Kurogane, but why he was calling him Sakura was more than a little confusing. He might still be a bit out of sorts, but he knew who he was at the very least.

He shook his head to clear it and that was when all the pieces started to come together, because instead of the few flyaway strands of dark hair that refused to do anything but fall in his face he was pushing soft, cinnamon bangs out of his eyes and felt hair longer than he’d ever had in his life tickling at his ears. With slowly dawning horror he lifted his hand and looked at it. It was a hand he recognized, but it was not his own.

Beside him, Syaoran was growing more and more distraught and distantly, Kurogane thought maybe he should have done something to calm him down, but then he heard Fai off to his left saying Kurogane’s name and the responding gasp from what could only have been Kurogane’s body.

Daring to look Kurogane peered around Fai to see his own face stricken with panic as what should have been his eyes stared at what should have been his hands. Kurogane cleared his throat, not quite ready to hear himself talk, and managed to catch Sakura’s attention. When she saw Kurogane in her body her jaw dropped and it was probably the most ridiculous looking expression Kurogane’s face had ever pulled.

“Is that you in there, princess?” Kurogane asked. It was just as startling to hear his words come out through Sakura’s voice as he’d expected.

He watched Sakura nod slowly and Fai’s eyes widen in shock and realization. He turned back to Sakura in Kurogane’s body. “Sakura-chan?”

From Kurogane’s other side Syaoran made a strangled noise. “Kurogane-san?”

Sighing, Kurogane nodded. “Yeah, it’s me kid.”

“What happened!” Syaoran cried, scrambling to his feet and looking torn between flinging himself at Sakura to check her over for injury and not wanting to invade any boundaries Kurogane might have in regard to his body.

“I don’t know!” Sakura’s panic had Kurogane’s voice reaching octaves that had to be painful. “Kurogane-san and I were talking and then there was a light and everything was spinning and I was floating and then I woke up like _this_! And Kurogane-san’s over there and I don’t know what happened or how to fix it!”

“Shh, Sakura-chan, calm down,” Fai said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t permanent. You and Kuro-rin have just swap bodies. Your souls are just a little mixed up right now.”

“A _little_?” Kurogane snapped. Fai shot him a look over his shoulder before focusing on Sakura again. He huffed indignantly, but kept his mouth shut. Fai was right, it wouldn’t do to upset the princess any more than she already was.

“Magic like this isn’t permanent. It’s mostly meant to confuse and throw off the target. It’s absolutely reversible,” Fai said. It wasn’t like him to speak so freely about what he knew of magic, but Sakura’s panic had turned the dark skin of Kurogane’s face an unnatural pale color. Calming her down must have been worth sharing a bit of his knowledge. “There’s lots of ways to fix something like this.”

Kurogane could see Sakura visibly relax. She took a deep, steadying breath and looked at Fai. “So, what are our options, Fai-san?” When she spoke her voice was like Kurogane was used to speaking in, but still so clearly Sakura that it didn’t sound a thing like him even though it was his mouth speaking.

“Well,” and Fai was frowning in that way that meant he was trying to break not so great news delicately. “The easiest way isn’t really an option, so we’ll have to do a bit of research before we can change you both back.”

Kurogane pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, silently thankful when Syaoran caught him by the elbow before he toppled back to the ground. It was weird, being so small. He had to look up to look Syaoran in the eye, and Fai, even though he was still kneeling beside Sakura, was even with Kurogane’s shoulder. Even Mokona, who leapt from Fai’s shoulder over to Kurogane’s seem far too big while he was in this tiny body. He needed to fix this. Right now.

“What’s wrong with that easy way?” Kurogane asked irritably. 

“It’s not something the two of you should really do,” Fai said, looking extremely uncomfortable. 

Kurogane rolled his eyes. “I think that’s a call for the princess and I to make.”

It wasn’t often that Kurogane got to see Fai annoyed, but there was no mistaking the expression on his face before he looked Kurogane dead in the eye and said “This option takes a very high level of _physical_ intimacy to accomplish. If you understand my meaning.”

Everything in Kurogane violently objected to the very idea. No, he could not do that to the princess, especially not if there were other options. Evidently, he didn’t need to say anything for Fai to understand his refusal and give him a knowing look. He wanted to knock his fist against that smug head, but Kurogane didn’t think he’d really be able to reach in this body.

“Like I was saying, we’ll do some research and figure out how to fix this,” Fai said, getting to his feet and helping Sakura to hers. The princess was as unsteady on Kurogane’s legs as he had been on hers. “For now, let’s head back to town.”

The hike out to the underground tunnels had been about an hour. The terrain wasn’t tricky to navigate and the single river they needed to cross had a sturdy bridge built over it. All in all, the trip had been easy, if a bit long. Heading back, however, proved quite the challenge when he and Sakura weren’t in their proper bodies. 

After a few too many stumbles, Fai had taken to holding onto Sakura’s arm to make sure she stayed upright while Syaoran fretted from behind, too small compared to the mass of Kurogane’s body to be of much help to his princess. Kurogane, for his part, was not used to having to step so high over things and continuously kept stubbing his feet and knocking his shins. He would have to apologize to Sakura for the rough treatment, intentional or not, and be sure to take care of the handful of scratches he’d managed to acquire.

It took them twice as long to get back to the town. By the time they’d secured a pair of rooms at the local inn the sun had sunk below the horizon and stars were twinkling up in the sky. They all crowded into one of the small rooms together and tried to come up with some sort of plan.

According to Fai, they would have to figure out the nature of the switch, which meant going back to the tunnels and poking around some more. The best way to avoid getting themselves into even more trouble was to only have one of them be down in the tunnels while the others stayed above ground, which had its own batch of troubles. Syaoran could read the language inscribed upon the walls of the tunnels, the hieroglyphs familiar to him from travels with his father, but he knew nothing of magic to even know where to begin looking for clues, and likewise, Fai might have known magic, but the writing was as foreign to him as the others.

It left them with no plan to speak of by the time Syaoran’s eyes started drooping and Sakura was yawning, a hand that ought to have been dainty, but was large and sword hardened, coming up to politely cover her mouth. Fixing things would have to wait until morning, and when Kurogane announced that it was bedtime not even Fai looked ready to argue. 

“Okay princess, let’s go,” Kurogane said, motioning to the door. She stood up easily enough, half a day in Kurogane’s body at least getting her as far as being able to walk, but then Syaoran spoke up.

“You guys are sharing a room?” He looked more confused than anything. 

Kurogane was feeling tired himself after the day’s events and didn’t really have the patience to beat around the bush. “We always get an extra room when we can so the princess can have some privacy. Seeing as I’ve got half the princess it should be us two sharing a room.”

While what he told the kid was the truth there was more to it than just giving Sakura some privacy, but neither the kid nor Fai needed to know that. 

No one stopped them from going, and Kurogane didn’t stop Sakura when she opened her arms to allow Mokona to hop up and snuggle happily into her chest crowing about how she was “just as warm as Kuro-puu” and other such nonsense. 

It was going to be a long couple of days, and for all their sakes Kurogane hoped that was all it would be.

**Author's Note:**

> An update will be a bit of time away, since life has gotten super busy for me and other projects. I'll try to get something out for this by July but I can't promise anything.


End file.
